Tuniitaq
Tuniitaq is the land of giants and ice, a cold land, and a very large one. Tuniitaq’s southern border on the north edge of the great lakes then follows the edge of the pine forests across the continent all the way to the Heaven-touching mountains, then up along them until it reaches the shore of Alasqa. From ocean to ocean, the land of Tuniitaq is a beautiful but harsh land of long, cold winters, brief and beautiful summers, and pristine wilderness. Much of the land is shrouded in dense pine forests, woven through by the silvery ribbons of swift-running rivers and dotted with a great many lakes. the northernmost reaches of the mainland are devoid of trees, the sun too weak to support them there.☃☃☃☃Tuniitaq is a loosely-organized confederacy of many different peoples.Each group is entirely self-governed, and no one group has the power to control the decisions of another, but they can all call on the other groups for aid, and while there are occasionally raids and other unpleasantness, there is no large-scale war within the confederacy. These political ties are bound by intermarriage, often strategic arranged marriages between groups but also, choice marriages are encouraged with neighboring groups. The end result being that everyone has family in every other group, which makes it somewhat more challenging to go to war against them.☃☃☃☃The practice was started by the Tuniit culture, who absorbed a wave of Inuit who were ready to go to war against them by intermarrying, absorbing their technology and expanding their livable area dramatically. As the Tuniit culture spread, they continued this practice with each new culture they came in contact with, until there were giants to be found among even the most distant groups. These giants serve as living examples of the connectivity of Tuniitaq, sometimes emerging from couples that both look perfectly normal, showing that every group in the north is bonded together with ties of family. These practices don’t seem to work with the Europeans, who are too proud to allow their families to mingle, and will even go so far as to kill or abandon the giants that are born to keep the shame a secret. Tuniitaq is made of many distinct tribes, but generally speaking the human groups fall into a handful of cultures. Native (Arctic) for those living north of the treeline and on the shoreline, Native (Subarctic) for those living in the dense pine forests, Native (Mammutcha) for the Mammutcha people who live in a broad swath of forest down the middle of Tuniitaq, and Native (Vinlandr) for those living on the eastern coast who interbred with the norse settlers, establishing a stable mixed population and absorbing norse technology and writing. There’s a great deal of variation within these groups, but many of the broad strokes are very similar, particularly with the intermarriage that characterizes Tuniitaq.☃☃☃☃The most common non-human race in Tuniitaq would be the Tuniit, the giants. These towering humans are created from a genetic trait originating from actual giants that, long ago, freely bred with the Tuniit people. Since they made contact with other cultures, the Tuniit have spread this trait all through the empire, until there are giants to be found in nearly every tribe. In the Tuniit territory, the giants even outnumber the humans by a slim margin. Innunquac are also created from the lands of Tuniitaq, humanoid shapes formed from stone and brought to life through the complex runes scribed all across their surfaces, the flow of magic mimicking many human functions. Created as servants to runecasters, the innunguac are freed to live their own lives once their creator passes on. Spirit-born are not unheard of in Tuniitaq, and can even be relatively common in places where the spirits of animals are highly revered. Adventurers in Tuniitaq have many options for what sort of character they play. Most commonly, one can find Hunters, who have mastered techniques to kill game and put them to deadly use against other, more dangerous targets. Shamans and Medicine Men are common in the north, as the dangers of the climate can require supernatural assistance to overcome. Rune-casters can be found here and there, usually in larger settlements and trading posts, where learning to read and write is more accessible. Tuniitaq had something of a leg up on their southern neighbors when it comes to technology, due to the vinlandrs supplying the rest of the confederacy with limited quantities of iron. For the most part, however, their technology is the same as that found in the cahokian league. They trade with the Fusangren and the French for valuable technology such as firearms and cannons, and the supplies to process materials of their own, such as shears and wool spinners to turn tsawo into yarn or even thinner fibers to make proper fabric. Tuniitaq Timeline ~1000 CE: A large number of mammoths leave Where We Do Not Hunt and spread into the territory south, establishing themselves once again. ~1100 CE: The people who will become the mammutcha, under the guidance of a mammoth spirit-born begin capturing and taming wild mammoths, taking the steps toward a proper domestication. ~1200 CE: Tuniit make contact with the western-moving Inuit. Initial contact is rough, but the Tuniit eventually absorb the inuit over the next hundred years, gaining technology and gradually expanding their territory, absorbing or spreading into other populations they come into contact with. ~1300-1400 CE: The Vinland colony becomes separated from Iceland and falls apart, the survivors marrying into native groups of the area, merging into one mixed culture with metalworking, ship-building, and writing. ~1500 CE: First non-Norse European contact in Newfoundland, inhabited by Vinlandrs. Initially it goes well, but when european ships start trying to over-fish or edge out the Vinland groups of the island, they respond violently. ~1600 CE: The mammut reach a state of full domestication, allowing the Mammutcha to dramatically expand their territory southward. Plot Hooks * Gold has recently been discovered near the western edge of Tuniitaq, in a rugged region known only as Alasqa. Claims to the find are disputed by the Tuniit and the Russians, but while the two sides argue over land-rights and prior usage, prospectors from Fúsāng are moving in to stake their own claims. * An entire nomadic fishing-community is being followed by an enormous polar bear. The beast swims up under them and breaks through the ice beneath the center of their igloo-cluster to attack them, no matter where they move. The beast continues to rise up and attack from beneath, even after they move their village onto solid land. * During the night, someone (or a group of someones) cut the tusks off of every mammoth in the village, without waking a single beast or alerting the sentries. The young men say it was an attack by an enemy tribe, meant to shame them, but the elders disagree: if the they wanted to sabotage the village, then why did they leave the mammoths alive? * A naked man comes running into the party’s camp, his feet cut and bloodied by miles of jagged ice, pursued by three enraged hunters. The hunters claim that the naked man raped their sister, and their family’s honor demands his blood in payment for his crimes. The naked man claims that the hunters’ family are ancient enemies of his own: these men lay in wait outside his brother’s tent until he and his brother had gone inside and stripped off their wet hunting clothes, and while they were waiting for his brother’s wife to dry their garments, the hunters stabbed their spears through the wall of the tent. His brother was killed, but they missed the naked man, who claims he barely escaped with his life. The hunters scream that his lying tongue will not save him from them this time. Which side do the players choose to believe? * The Tuniit have put out a call for warriors of all descriptions, summoning them together for a single purpose: the chicken-legged hut of an exiled Russian necromancer has traveled to the site of a long-dormant Link; the house has not moved for weeks, and it appears to be using the Link as part of a ritual of some sort. All attempts to chase the necromancer off have been rebuffed by the secretive Muscovite's undead minions. The Tuniit shamans foresee terrible calamity if the ritual is not stopped. NPCs Kivioq the Hunter (Lv. 24 immortal human Hunter) Jean-Pierre Descomps dit Labadie (Lv. 10 human Voyageur) Brother LaForge (French missionary, lv. 4 human Cleric)